Texas Almanac, 1945-1946 Page: 188
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188 TEXAS ALMANAC -1945-1946.
Texas Farm Values, Ownership and Tenancy, by Counties.-(Continued.)
S Number Farms - Number Farms
Operated By- Operated By-
sc DiCounty-
cc _ _D I - .
San Patricio ........22,030,005 3661 1401 557
San Saba.... ...... 12,264,321 6101 1291 518
Schleicher ......... 113,125,137 1181 391 118
Scurry .........110,172,376 5501 1461 743
Shackelford .......1 7,599,1491 2041 591 182
Shelby ............I 7,074,311 2,1321 2681 2,544
Sherman ..........1 6752,145 771 11i 121
Smith ........... 11,558,187 2,2251 4941 2,572
Somervell .........I 1,120,003 166 331 228
Starr .. ... ...... I 1,854,310 569 1341 212
Stephens ...........5,839,905 4021 1581 246
Sterling ............5,837,077 531 301 30
Stonewall ..........7,119,637 2831 951 365
Sutton ............14,901,801, 871 211 55
Swisher ...........12,241,625, 4021 1731 444
Tarrant ...........29,241,088 1,9681 2531 1,332
Taylor ............12,518,941 7321 2371 887
Terrell ..........9,930,121 381 211 68
Terry 1........... 9,383,5851 3681 1671 758
Throckmorton. 1 6,202,8641 2441 1031 218
Titus I 4,222,7241 9571 1471 1,039
Tom Green ...... 124,909,0701 6791 1241 575
Travis ......... 116,859,2611 1,0521 2051 1,356
Trinity ......... 1 2,807,5671 8151 811 716
Tyler ...... 2,352,6681 9731 73! 474
UJpshur ........I 6,481,2101 1,4501 336i 1,623
Upton ....... . I 4,204,343 16 131 36
Uvalde ... 115,758,8731 3781 961 264
Val Verde 119,043,098 1841 311 84
Van Zandt 10,193,733 1,8171 4481 2,113County-
n 1z 2a
Victoria ........114,708,146 5801 2191 838
Walker ......... 3,613,035 829 133 904
Waller ............J 5,687,530 584 233 659
Ward .... ...12,339,896 47 48 71
Washington ....... 113,220,511 1,439 192 2,281
Webb .............12,735,827 218 34 152
Wharton .......... t24,099,863 928 333 2,473
Wheeler .......... i 8,620,485 42 0 163 680
Wichita .......... I 9,946,769 525 113 680
Wilbarger ......... 120,708,576 374 164 753
Willacy ......... 8,379,886 242 211 517
Williamson ..... 127,899,095 1,297 259 2,384
Wilson .......... . 9,126,996 929 214 945
Winkler f........ 886,259 5 7 11
Wise .............. 9,389,493 1,092 251 1,128
Wood . ....... 5,687,971 1,495 305 1,480
Yoakum ........... I 2,537,997 42 59 157
Young ............. 9,857,536 607 236 594
Zapata............. 1,994,855 234 41 53
Zavala ............ 8,876,181 117 70 116
*In the column "All Tenants" are included cash
tenants, cash-share tenants, share tenants and
croppers, and miscellaneous In most counties
there will be a small difference between the sum
of the three items-"Full Owners," "Part Own-
ers" and "All Tenants"-and the Item giving
total number of farms in the preceding table.
This difference represents the number of farms
operated by managers.Texas Cotton Crop
The greatest story of Texas agriculture is
cotton-its rise to a climax, its decline and
the impact on the state's economy. Until
recent years cotton accounted for about 70
per cent of the income from all crop sources
n 1944 the value of all field and truck
crops, fruits and nuts was $920,374,000. with
cotton and cottonseed constituting only 35
per cent, or $323,696.000. In 1929, total
value of all crops was $608.924,000, with
cotton and cottonseed accounting for $370,-
834,000, or 68 per cent Production in Texas
has been reported since the 1850 census,
first after the state's annexation to the
Union. and cotton is grown in all but about
30 of 254 counties At the peak of the in-
dustry's prosperity, in the late twenties,
more than 1,750,000 persons in Texas made
their living primarily from cotton growing
Due to various factors, cotton has declined
in importance and constitutes less than 10
er cent of the state's income from crops,
livestock and minerals It is still a domi-
nating factor in Texas' economy, but not
the king as of old
History and Extension.
Cotton is one of the oldest crops in agri
culture. In 1500 B C. it was referred to In
the Rig Veda hymn of India as a sacred
plant. Cabeza de Vaca found it growing
wild when he went across what is now
Texas in 1527 to 1536. Little progress was
made in America until the colonists ob-
tained their independence from England,
and the real start of the industry came
shortly after invention of the gin in 1792
Commercial origin of the crop in Texas
was in the early 1820s after Austin's colony
settled on the fertile banks of the Brazos,
although there was some scattered produc-
tion around the San Antonio missions in
the latter part of the Eighteenth Century
The first census (1850) after Texas' annexa-
tion showed Texas had a crop in 1849 of
58.073 bales. Following the Civil War there
was rapid development until the peak yearof cotton's history in the state, 1926, when
5,628,000 bales were produced from 17,749,000
acres. As a rule, expansion has not been
gradual but one of spurts as favorable re-
gions have successively been put under the
plow. Development of the Blackland Belt
and Central West Texas occurred after the
Civil War and was aided immensely by the
coming of railroads. The two decades after
1910 saw expansion of cotton growing on
the Great Plains of Northwest Texas and
around Corpus Christi. Since 1850, it is
estimated that Texas alone has produced
around 206.000.000 bales of cotton, with 80
to 90 per cent going to foreign countries.
Cotton's Troubles.
No other crop in American history has
had so many adverse factors to contend
with as cotton. At the bottom of the pro-
ducer's troubles has been the tariff-particu-
larly true in Texas and the Gulf Southwest
as a whole. Until the war, 90 per cent of
Texas' cotton was exported, with Japan and
the United Kingdom the leading purchasers.
But the tariff has forced the producer to
,sell in an unprotected, world-wide market
and to buy his consumer goods in a pro-
tected market, inevitably making the price
he received out of line with those he had
paid
Tariffs on manufactured goods took away
from cotton growers much of the barter
value of their production. The result, in
effect, has been an increasing levy that has
amounted to a tax burden against growers.
One of the greatest impacts on the indus-
try came with the institution of control and
adjustment programs in 1933. Harvested
Texas acreage dropped nearly 50 per cent
from 1930 to 1940-from 16,138 000 to 8,523,-
000 Acreage harvested in 1944 was 7,200,000,
lowest in forty-five years. In America,
commercial production dropped from 17,-
097 000 bales in 1931-32 to 11,812,000
1939-40 Foreign production during that pe-
riod increased from 9,602,000 to 15,908,000.
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Texas Almanac, 1945-1946, book, 1945; Dallas, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth117166/m1/190/: accessed May 5, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.